How about safe and efficient protected areas for bikers along its arteries, a proliferation of transit-only lanes, and new light rail lines criss-crossing Capitol Hill and the Central District along 23rd Ave and Denny Way? The Seattle Department of Transportation has published a draft of its “20-year” Seattle Transportation Plan and is beginning the process of gaining public support while — hopefully — addressing shortcomings and challenges in the proposed vision that will guide the city’s leaders and shape its transportation spending for years to come.

The high-level strategy isn’t necessarily about specific projects, instead laying out visions and technical frameworks for changing how SDOT works and makes its decisions. It is the latest in efforts from Department of Transportation head Greg Spotts as he attempts to turn around an organization that has struggled with timelines and compromises. CHS reported in March on the reorganization of the department’s Vision Zero efforts under Spotts to address street safety that included implementation of a “safe systems” model with roads designed to be “self-enforcing.”

The newly released draft of the Seattle Transportation Plan is equally ambitious — and equally removed from the hard realities of implementation SDOT has run into over the years.

“We are pleased to share a draft of the Seattle Transportation Plan (STP), a 20-year plan for the future of our transportation system,” Spotts writes about the introduction of the new draft plan. “The STP was informed by thousands of people who live, work, and play in Seattle. It represents the first time we, as a city, have comprehensively addressed the transportation needs of all people who use our streets at a citywide scale.”

Some of the most concrete elements of the draft include the vision for the city’s potential “light rail expansion opportunities” that would add new spurs to fill in the map around the currently existing Line 1 spine including Capitol Hill Station. While the city doesn’t run Sound Transit, its representatives have a strong presence on the board and the coming decisions for new lines will need to map to Seattle City Hall’s vision. Under the proposed plan, the city could align around multiple new lines over the next 20 years including one that would connect from Mount Baker through the 23rd Ave corridor on Capitol Hill’s eastern flanks and another connecting Capitol Hill to the waterfront via Denny.

While those kinds of projects might make Capitol Hill and Central District transit lovers excited, they are a small part of the more than 1,300-page vision which mostly centers on high-level strategy and technical implementation including new standards for things like transit-only lanes and protected bike resources. Most other specific project discussion in the plan centers on areas outside of the city’s core including areas like Rainier Ave as SDOT says equity and development opportunities are prioritized in the planning.

As for reality, agencies like SDOT and Sound Transit have struggled to deliver on timelines despite strong funding. In one recent example, CHS reported here on the final stages of work to complete the six-year road diet along the 23rd Ave and 24th Ave corridor connecting the Central District, Capitol Hill, and Montlake neighborhoods. By the time the project made it to its third northern phase, many of the safety elements planned for the overhaul had been stripped away.

CHS reported the latest major transportation project delay here in a brief on reduced service on the current light rail line during a month-long maintenance project. Included there, news that Judkins Station and the coming East Link line connecting Seattle to Bellevue and Redmond is now delayed for up to two years while contractors replace faulty tracks. A portion of that new line will open by next spring. “Trains will make eight stops between Redmond Technology Station, which adjoins the Microsoft campus, and South Bellevue Station,” the Seattle Times reports.

A hit and run driver making a left turn onto E Madison struck and killed 80-year-old Bari Hill in February

Around the Hill, the construction process for the E Madison RapidRide bus line has been a mess for people living and working in the area but will eventually bring important safety changes for the route to the streets and sidewalks along Madison and the overhaul and transition to one-way Pike and Pine improvement project between the Waterfront and Capitol Hill with safety improvements along the busy routes is coming, and the $3 million federally boosted Melrose Promenade project is basically complete through its core stretch after a year of work.

Meanwhile, SDOT has made more positive strides on faster, more tactical changes including small projects like new 4-way stops along the Pike and Pine corridor, and pushing through long-awaited fixes like the overhaul of the 23rd and John intersection. But even those smaller efforts can get bogged down like the work planned to address the dangerously busy Broadway/John/E Olive Way crossings.

To finalize the new plan — and solidify support for its concepts — SDOT is conducting outreach at drop-in events held at libraries across the city as well as holding virtual sessions. You can provide feedback about the plan at seattletransportationplan.infocommunity.org.

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